Hi guys im totally new to the forum,although i have used audacity for a while,When i import an mp3 tracks into audacity i have just noticed that when i click on the clipping option all the tracks i have ever used are all clipping imensley,This is before i even go into effects,Is there a factory setting of some sort so i can reset all the settings,just incase there is some sort of amplifying going on that i am not aware of…thanks …JJ
Are you sure it is clipping - the red clipping lines appear even iff the audio just touches the 0db line -without technically clipping.
Try using the Amplify effect with a little negative amplification - and then see if you still have clipping - or if the soung sounds clipped.
WC
Yes it’s deffinatly clipping,there is a lot of red bars vertically on the songs,some thin some thick.I have tried compressing which brings the clipping off a bit,I was just thinkin that some kind of amplification was going on,I tried different tracks so there should be no fixed amplification if i have’nt added any,HELP,these tracks are allready made up online where i get them from
There are two possibilities.
One is that the MP3 files you downloaded were so heavily compressed and maxed to 0 dB that Audacity sees it as clipping - there’s nothing you can do about this. Amplifying by a small negative amount will get rid of the red clipping lines but will not improve the sound.
Second is to go to Edit > Preferences then the Import/Export section and make sure that “Normalize all tracks in project” is not checked.
– Bill
Thanks Bill,I think your right,I have gone back years in my mp3 discs and they are all clipping,The old version of audacity did’n’t show clipping so I didn’t realise they were as bad, I got a cd out , ript a song to mp3 and put it through the new ‘audacity’ and its perfect no clipping,These tracks I have been getting for years are CRAP, Normalizing tracks is off …so its my crappy mp3s… Thanks Bill
If you have the CD you will be much better to rip a WAV file to load into Audacity - the WAV will be uncompressed and lossless and you work on in Audacity and then export to MP3.
If you rip to MP3 you get MP3 comression damage on the way in and then again on the way out when you export - 2 lots of compression = a lot more compression damage to the music.
WC
Hi WC…The music i get is allready mp3…so i use adacity to work on them… If i have an mp3 at 128kbs and i copy it again and again, are you saying the quality will deteriorate after each copy? As i make medleys up of lots of different songs,and playlists, copying over and over again is inevitable, JJ
If you are exporting as MP3 each time, the yes.
To avoid the compound deterioration, open the original mp3 file and export it as a 32bit WAV file (16 bit will probably be good enough, but if you have enough disk space go for 32 bit as it avoids adding “dither noise”). Use the WAV files for all your production work and if you need an MP3 copy of the finished project, just make an additional copy in MP3 format.
To avoid the compound deterioration, open the original mp3 file and export it as a 32bit WAV file (16 bit will probably be good enough, but if you have enough disk space go for 32 bit as it avoids adding “dither noise”). Use the WAV files for all your production work and if you need an MP3 copy of the finished project, just make an additional copy in MP3 format.
I was thinking of doing some work on files i only have in MP3 and then Exporting MP3 but suspected the ‘compression’ of compression problem and consequent loss of quality, so it’s good to find it addressed here before i start. So we use a WAV file for doing the work and then in the above example it is suggested
“make an additional copy in MP3 format.”
I presume this means Export MP3. So in the end we are actually re-compressing data that came in as MP3 so the resultant file will have to suffer quality loss. I don’t see any way around it. The problem arises because many of us are using MP3 as our standard storage file. Most downloads come that way.
Yes indeed. But if all you are doing is simple editing of your MP3, to shorten it or cut out unwanted bits, then there are some simple MP3 editors that are available (there are several forum threads on this - use the forum search tool for MP3Cut and MP3Split).
Otherwise yes - you will get compression of compression by using Audacity in this way.
WC